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AshlaBoga

*Dun dun dun*

So, basically the prof was playing everyone?
That sounds like something Prof. G would do.

“I said I would give you all A’s, however I am not the assigning grade’s as of now!”

Kid Chaos

Wait a minute, that doesn’t look like the professor we’ve all come to know and love (or at least tolerate). And WTF is Alison talking about? In my book, “philosophy prof who likes to play mind games” is not the same thing as “pleasantly surprised”. But hey, whatever floats your boat, babe. 😜

Giacomo Bandini

“Pleasantly surprised” of getting an automatic A.

Markus

Imagine how hilarious it would be if this is what Prof G. looked like if he shaved and died his hair.

Giacomo Bandini

So.. something is fishy here.
Prediction: Gurwara was never the philosophy professor. He was an impersonator who want to make contact with Alison for some reasons… But why? And how did he know how to push her buttons?

Oh my god. Oh Patrick, you MAGNIFICENT BASTARD. It’s been you all the time. EVERYTHING we see has been a part of your plan.
Once you got Patrick ‘s File from the Yakuza, you sneaked upon him and read his mind, discovering his refusal to use his powers, and also his fantasies about Alison.
You have one of your goons set Patrick building on fire when Alison was on fireman patroll.
And, for better result, you planted your man, Gurwara, with the instructions to convey the message that compromising your etics could be unavoidable, and then, at the right moment, you sent the file with the money.

You fucking bastard.

Rugains Fleuridor

Patrick did WHAT to Patrick? I think you mean “Max” somewhere in there.

That doesn’t look like someone whose wife just had a baby and took paternity leave.

AshlaBoga

Old guy young wife?

bta

Children take their toll on you, man.

JohnTomato

Good twin shows up?

Deliverance

Give a hand to professor Karapovsky.

Lostman

How come I have a feeling that supers been around longer, then anyone realizes in this universe.

Rugains Fleuridor

Try again.

Lostman

Here something I been wondering, how old is Patrick anyways?

bta

If I’ve gotten everything right, I think every biodynamic’s mother was pregnant during the Storm, which happened in 1991. SFP starts with Allison’s 20th birthday, and a bit less than two years have passed in-universe since then (since Allison is still in her second year of college). So it’s probably around 2013-2014 in-universe, and Patrick would be around 21-22-23 years old, depending if he’s older or younger than Allison. But maybe I’m wrong somewhere.

Weatherheight

That jibes with my several read-throughs of the comic. Only those who were in utero during the storm, either in part or entirely, were eventually diagnosed as biodynamic (and not all of those – a sizable percentage were perfectly normal children). What is unclear to me is whether only those conceived during the storm had a chance of being biodynamic, or if any child in utero during any part of the storm could develop an anomaly.

For example, a child is conceived 8 months before the storm but spends 1 month in utero during the storm; is that one month sufficient to allow biodynamic ability? How about a kid conceived during the last month of the year-long storm but born 8 months later?

Hmm.. getting pedantic now… probably time for sleep. 😀

Lysiuj

Ummm…. is that not Gurwara with a shave?

Rugains Fleuridor

That was my first thought.

Zinc

With a shave, without scars, without a cane, and with completely different hair (Gurwara’s is black-shot-with-grey and messy, not white).

Lysiuj

Hmmm, fair enough. (I’m the one who thought, when Gurwara first appeared and before we saw his face, that it was Lisa. So clearly I’m not the best jusdge of who Alison’s professor is)

Tylikcat

And a totally different sense of fashion.

Zorae42

There’s just a doctor who convention in town and that’s his 11th doctor cosplay

called it! He was never their teacher. It’s clear in the first cartoon where he shows up.

JeffH

Alison sees dead people… 😉

Cartheon

Then where was the actual professor?

Philip Bourque

Unless you have suddenly developed precognition, don’t make predictions.

Christophe2314

But I have developed precognition. I shall now read your future. I see… cookies.

palmvos

given that he is using the internet, that isn’t a prediction. that’s a fact. the internet has lots and lots of cookies….

Christophe2314

I meant the edible kind.

Thursday Violist

So, basically, Professor Guwara got face surgery.

Jon

Odds that Allison gets blamed for ‘Getting Gurawa Fired’ – 100%

Andrew Cole

I mean, technically she IS responsible for him losing his job. Admittedly, it was through winning a bet where he set the stakes in a conversation that he initiated, but, yes, technically she is responsible for him no longer being their professor.

Illiterate Intellectual

Actually, I think she wouldn’t be. I went back and checked, and the players were Allison, Gurwara, and that one guy who didn’t have a white stone (but he didn’t know) and everyone put up a black stone so everyone won. That means Allison and guy-whose-name-I-can’t remember get an A, and Gurwara keeps his job.

Whatever’s going on with switching teachers here probably has nothing to do with that second game after the talk. Conspiracies involving mind-readers are the more likely possibility.

Andres Molina

Here’s my 2 predictions. One, Clevin is actually a wacko cartoon character in disguise, considering how he told Allison that he was going to walk into a corner and freak out, followed with a WAHOOO!!! and the reaction of those who saw him, probably revealing himself as his true toon self and going wacko and Cookoo like Woody Woodpecker. We don’t see him go wacko, either to keep it a secret, or to focus on Allison. Or two, Clevin’s just ultra happy. Who knows, we at never know. 😉

Arkone Axon

That actually IS a Marvel comics character. Slapstick. “The hero who doesn’t fight crime but rather plays cruel tricks on it.”

The character(s) later to become known as The Mask debuted in 1989 or 1991, depending on which debut you count (roughly – there was a Mark Badger series that involved a version of The Mask as well). The first devoted title to the character was in 1991.

Slapstick debuted in November of 1992.

“We call it riding the gravy train…”

Zorae42

Well the Three Stooges were active in the late 1920s, so that was a pretty old gravy train to hop on 😛

Weatherheight

Heh. I was referring to the “Toon as Superhero” motif, but yeah, good point.

Psile

Professor Gurwara? He’s been dead for 30 years.

Whaaaaaaaaa?

Izo

Thats better than what I was coming up with 🙂

bta

Then who was Phi?

Eric Meyer

You know, it IS entirely possible that Gurwara got sick/injured and asked another professor to cover for him. Substitutes are still a thing in College.

YES! My prediction was correct: Guwara was a homeless guy who pretended to be a professor to get the bagels in the faculty lounge!

Izo

In all fairness, they’re very good bagels.

Scholiast

The bagels in the faculty lounge are never good.

Izo

If they live in Brooklyn (New York) they would be very good. Maybe San Francisco – they have cinnamon sugar bagels and asiago bagels (best I have ever had) in san fran. And Boston too. There was a really good bagel shop I bought from when I briefly lived in Boston.

Brandon Barrus

Clevin is so toast.

Anna

Great, now that guy’s gonna think Allison got Gurwara fired, and it’s gonna be Issue 1 all over again.

Weatherheight

Quick! Find all the differences between whoever this professor is (presumably Karapovsky) and the opening shot of Arjun!
I’ll start you off…
1) Arjun has a briefcase, Karapovsky has a satchel
2) Arjun has a cane, Karapovsky does not.

The one on the left has a much bigger flask hidden in his briefcase. He might also be packing heat. Then again, the one on the right probably was too, so never mind.

Oh, and, the one on the right has more scars.

Alex Harencar

Also all the scars we’ve seen in other panels.

Giacomo Bandini

3)Arjun is (probably) an alcoholic, Karapovsky is (probably) not.

Diana

He’s a philosophy professor, I think it’s kinda likely.

Robert Z

I seem to remember a part of their wager being that if she won he would quit… But since I didn’t understand (and still don’t) exactly what the heck happened, or who (if anyone) won, yeah… I’m confused, but still remember that part of the wager.

Not only am I confused, but I’m lazy as well. I’ll leave it to someone with better interweb skills and memory to prove me wrong or right…

Or you could just follow me to “I don’t care, cool story anyways” land.

It’s full of pizza, beer, soda, and not much giving of craps regarding details and semantics.

We also have pie, which unlike cake, is never a lie.

Cartheon

It wasn’t a wager of mutual exclusivity. Her winning doesn’t mean he lost. The situation was if she played a black stone, she would fail the class. If he played a black stone, he would resign. However, if they both played black stones, she would pass and he would keep his job. If they play a white stone, they also get what they want, but poor John fails the class. They both played black stones, so she passes, John passes, and he keeps his job.

Zorae42

At least until he tells the school that everyone is passing on day 1 of class and he gets fired for being ridiculous and the new teacher isn’t obligated to uphold the outcome of his game 😛

Although we don’t know if that’s what happened.

Cartheon

If he has tenure and his union supports academic freedom like most faculty unions do, even that won’t get him dismissed.

Zorae42

That didn’t protect her last professor. And he may not have tenure since he’s a substitute teacher.

I was also kind of joking ; )

KatherineMW

Academic freedom means you can publish what you like without getting fired. I don’t think it can cover giving your student F’s or A’s for frivolous reasons that have nothing to do with their work.

I’d say they could remove him from teaching without firing him, but 1) teaching is kind of the most useful thing you can do with a philosophy degree, as it’s not especially meaningful to research a subject with no concrete answers or way of arriving at definitive evidence; and 2) if teaching badly got you barred from teaching, it would be an incentive for profs to be crappy teachers, because a lot of them dislike it (especially if they get the first- and second-year classes) and would rather be researching.

Cartheon

I am sure it varies around the country and the world. I work in academia. One of my friends is a biology professor at a community college. He is currently dealing with the headache of a part-time faculty member in his department who is a creationist. This faculty member goes through the college-wide lab manual for Intro Biology and marks out anything evolution related. She teaches intelligent design in her lecture. They cannot get rid of her, because of the union and the academic freedom rules the college abides by, and she has been working there so long that when class openings are assigned, she is among the first to be selected to teach them.

I know of another gentleman who intentionally makes his tests so hard that it is almost impossible to pass them and he does not give a curve. He does this so people drop the course and he can focus on his research.

Academic freedom covers more than just publishing, again depending on the institution and the union.

Mechwarrior

That sounds like an issue with the college’s administration. I’ve heard of at least one incident of a professor getting sacked for putting his name down on pro-ID literature even though he wasn’t teaching it in his classroom (the issue being that he was using his position as a professor at that university to promote it).

Cartheon

It is an issue with the administration They don’t want to be sued by the union.

Stephanie Gertsch

Did John have the chance to work for his grade as he only had a black stone?

palmvos

originally no. but supposedly (I don’t feel up to looking it up) he told john that he could still pass before john left that class.

Izo

There was never a professor called Gurwara at this college. It was all a practical joke.

Filthy Liar

Machiavellian plot to find out who Alison really is when the stones are down.

Izo

Smooth, Clevin. You dont sound desperate at all…

Dawn Smashington

So Guwara kept his word, and gave up his teaching spot. Those who were auto-failed get a second chance. Al’s maybe had a few hours of sleep, total, combining her naps. The new teacher looks totally happy to be there.

This is going to end well!

Danygalw

No, they both put down the same stone.

zellgato

oh dear me.

also
seriously that dork is me.

FlashNeko

Suddenly, there was no free A. There was no teacher, no philosopher, no professor
called Gurwara to be followed. There was nothing in the classroom but the
puzzled students of courage who suddenly found themselves alone with the
shadows and darkness.

Professor Gurwara was found alive, and of normal size, some 8,000 miles away…

Arklyte

Ok, why am I waiting for terrorist attack right now?
Is it because of cover for new chapter and that All’s “flying brick” set is once again useless against this? Not to mention that’s a rather hot topic and “geniuses” in goverment are only making it worse with every day?

Ahahahaha, Gurwara is the best. He’s also totally a villain, look at all those damn scars. Maybe not a super-villain though.

Arkone Axon

…Oh crap…

Suddenly I’m having a suspicion. What I’ve been saying about how Alison’s (unnecessary, ameteurish, clumsy, and unjustifiable) crimes against Max were going to have consequences? Especially since his mother makes Mallory Archer look like Carol Brady?

I’m starting to suspect that it might not be Clevin who gets stuffed into the fridge…

palmvos

oops mis-understood post., carry on.

Zorae42

Ah yes. In order to extract revenge for what happened to my son, I’m going to kill/deport/fire the perpetrator’s philosophy Professor! The one she had a public disagreement with no less. That’ll show her.

Next, I’ll go after a person that cut her off in traffic!

Arkone Axon

You’ve been so quick to assume the worst of Max because he wouldn’t rush to do what Alison wanted, with the flawed reasoning of “he’s essentially murdering millions of people just to spite Alison!” But you’re dismissive of the idea that his mother would kill (or just ruin) the people in Alison’s life after she “gave him a little arm twist?”

Zorae42

It’s not that she wouldn’t. It’s that her philosophy Professor seems like a strange person to target 😛

Especially given that if you were to inquire her classmates about her relationship with him, they’d say that she doesn’t get along with him.

Arkone Axon

Well, we’ll see what’s going to happen in the next update.

jandesf

Uh oh

Philip Petrunak

Oh no! The war criminal got lost his job! Now all the students will need to work for their grades! How horrible!

DonSimpson

Looking back on that first class day, the person calling himself Gurwara told at least two obvious lies. We now get to wonder about his other statements.

About

SFP follows the adventures of a young middle-class American with super-strength, invincibility and an overwhelming sense of social injustice.